Friday, 2 May 2014

In My Kitchen May 2014

There are not many surprises in this In My Kitchen post for those who have been reading my blog. It is full of Easter, E's birthday treats, food from a few outings and a few choice picks from the supermarket. That just about sums up my life over the last month!

It seems only fair I update you on the vegan Vegusto melty mozzarella cheese that I have mentionedrecently. I was not overly impressed at first but it has grown on me (not literally). I had so many good ideas for using the cheese in cooking but found myself unable to resist it grilled on toast. It was just so creamy and cheesy and delicious.

Here is the obligatory photo of some of the Easter eggs in the house. We still have a few left. After Easter I was tempted by the little eggs on sale. I made an amazing sweet slice with condensed milk and mini eggs. It was so moreish it was dangerous. That recipe will have its own post.

Like me, my mum had her first year of baking sourdough hot cross buns. Hers were delicious and looked prettier than mine.

E was given a few foodie items for his birthday. My parents found him this Nigata Beer Edinburgh Premium Ale. It is still in the fridge but he was most amused by the inane introduction: "This beer tastes delicious with a smooth deep flavour. I have been looking for a recipe for delicious beer. Now I've got it."

I bought E some crisps from Treats from Home. He loves crisps but we try not to just buy them occasionally as treats. These packets show how crisps are now getting posh. Well mostly.

I tasted the Guinness crisps and liked them. We agree that if blind tasted we wouldn't have guessed Guinness. It was more a deep savoury flavour that made the crisps look a little dirty. The label had lots of chatter about how you eat these with your mates at the pub or watching the weekend match. Not for the nerd by himself in the corner then!

I didn't eat the Walkers chicken crisps though most Brits would recognise this brand. What struck me about this packet was the information that they were made "with free range chicken from Devon". Hands up anyone who would taste the difference in a packet of crisps!

And then some crisps are just like you remember them. We loved the label on the Monster Munch saying "new old! bigger like they used to be!" It seems everything old is new again. Though I hope the person who decided to make Monster Munch smaller has been severely reprimanded. What were they thinking!

I bought E this tomato chilli relish at the farmers market. He had a yen for chilli jam but there was none to be found. This seemed a good alternative.

Lastly in the bundle of birthday goodies was this Fortnum and Mason Sir Nigel's Vintage Marmalade Shortbread Round that were Handmade in Edinburgh. I couldn't resist this for a special gift. They are very nice. Yet I am still reeling from paying $24 at David Jones for 150g of biscuits. There were other interesting flavours in the range but I wont be buying any more.

We went to a party a few weeks back and the main vegetarian food was samosas. They were huge with sturdy pastry and soft comforting vegies inside. When we left the host gave us a bag of these beautiful samosas. They were delicious reheated the next day for lunch.

We bought these seaweed snacks at the Fitzroy Market. Sylvia and I loved them. Then I looked a bit more closely at the packaging and found it was all foreign to me. I hope they didn't have fish in them. I don't think so. But if they did I had no way of knowing.

I quite like this 100th anniversary packaging on the White Wings flour. I find myself feeling sad in the supermarket these days. The supermarkets are becoming so aggressive in marketing their cheap own brand products that big food corporations like White Wings start to look like the little guy. I sort of feel sorry for them and then remember they have been doing this to smaller manufacturers for years. No wonder I find myself feeling uncomfortable as I check out the shelves of products.

I was excited to find some brown basmati rice in the supermarkets (left). It is something I have seen on blogs and been interested in. It tastes delicious but I am not sure it is any easier or healthier than regular brown rice (feel free to correct me). I already stock white basmati rice (my quick rice), brown long grain rice (right), sushi rice and arborio rice in my kitchen. I can't see brown basmati becoming part of my regular purchases.

The brown basmati rice was great with the Down Home Curry with Tofu & Broccoli from Isa Does It.Yes I was cooking from a cookbook but I didn't really follow the recipe closely or take photos. Mine had chickpeas and silverbeet!It was delicious and even better the second day.

I am sending this post to Celia at Fig Jam and Lime Cordial for her In My Kitchen event. Head over to check out what is happening in other bloggers' kitchens.

24 comments:

Great stuff! I haven't tried the melty Vegusto yet. When I first tried Vegusto I was all ewww (same with Cheezly) but now I love it though I try not to buy it. Too pricey for something I eat too quickly! As always I very much enjoy your In My Kitchen series. Can anyone sign up? I've lost my blogging mojo lately and need something to kick me back in to action. I figure if I commit to something featured monthly, that will help a bit!

Thanks Veganopoulous - I still haven't really warmed to cheezly - I think cold vegan cheese is even more challenging than melted but then as I eat dairy cheese I have less motivation to try it - but I think I will have to try and avoid vegusto melty. And hope you might join in In My Kitchen - it is a great event .

Some interesting items! The Japanese(?) beer is amusing indeed. The grilled cheese on toast and the hot cross buns look delectable. Oh, and I get seaweed snacks regularly, and am yet to come across one that has fish as an ingredient, so you should be safe.

Thanks Leaf - pleased to hear about the seaweek snacks because they are delicious but I get a bit worried about fish sauce and shrimp in asian foods because of some bad experiences. Yes I think the beer is japanese.

Johanna, such treasure in your kitchen this month! The Guinness chips sound amazing - I've never heard of anything like them - and how interesting that they don't taste too stout-like! Your market haul is very impressive, especially that spag squash for just $2.50. We tried one for the first time the other day and it was delicious - although maybe not delicious enough for us to try and grow it. And yummy samosas - we have been eating at an amazing vegetarian Indian restaurant recently, and I'm always blown away by the variety - there are over 150 different items on the menu! :)

Thanks Celia - I've never bought spaghetti squash before so this price seemed good to me - I am not sure I would want it regularly - just every once in a while would do. The Guiness chips were sort of fun but a bit of a gimmick, I think. The samosas were great but it is too long since we have been to our favourite indian place

I also find it sad when walking through the isles at supermarkets, I make a point of buying Australian & brands that I trust. I often wonder who produces the home brand products. I've tried the home brand flour, and with that you get what you pay for.

Thanks Cat - I try to buy Australian but I find that brands seem to come and go a lot at the supermarkets lately which makes it really hard working out what to buy. I do have some favourite brands that I always buy though.

hi glenda - sadly we have the two big supermarkets very close by so I yield to convenience too often. However at least we have lots of alternatives too. I see all the stuff because Coles is 100 this year and I think of them as a small store and how they have grown into this agressive beast and I wonder how it has come to this!

I had to show Mr Bite E's crisp selection, given he always gets Walkers at his own birthday :-) I like the sound of your kitchen and am also excited to see you found brown basmati rice in the supermarket. I've bought it a few times from the bulk food store I visit at the markets, but I have become a bit suspicious of that store as the source of my pantry pests! Supermarket sterility sometimes seems appealing. But then I am uncomfortable with them too so perhaps the pests are worth it, given I now freeze everything like rice on purchase...

Thanks Kari - I had my fair share of walkers crisps when we were in the uk - but I was disappointed they didn't have sour cream and onion in Treats from Home so I could have one or two from E's packet. I always buy my rice at the supermarket but should try those bins. I actually bought a packet of rice at the supermarket which was full of weevils and I had to take it back (and the woman was very rude about it though it was unopened and only bought days before so the weevils were not from my kitchen) So I can assure you that the supermarket rice is not necessarily more sterile.

Wow lots happening in your kitchen. Monster Munch - oh how I loved them, the picked onions/purple packet was always my fave, your right the packaging has shrunk! There were no Easter eggs in my home. I hope to share whats happening in my kitchen in the next couple of days, started writing my post just got to download the pics. PS Can't go wrong with a good vegetarian Samosa. Off to check out your Golden Beetroot Nutroast!

I like that Riviana Brown Basmati and just commented about it to Mtr Tiffin the other day, saying how it cooks a little quicker that the usual brown long or short grain. As for Monster Munch - that's a blast from the past. Thanks GGG.

Well done with shopping, spaghetti squash is so hard to find here right now probably due to the season, but that sourdough bread looks really good! I haven’t tried the Vegusto melty one, but I’ve tried other Vegusto types, but wasn’t a huge fan of their melty state, but got good flavors. The ‘dried up’ part of the cheese might be good on broiled dishes. Haha, a Japanese beer, that’s a very random one. Ahh these seaweed snacks are yummy especially the toasted ones! Thanks for sharing all these snacks, now I'm really hungry for some sourdough and beer!

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About Me

Recipes and reflections in which our vegetarian heroine dreams of being tall and graceful as a giraffe; being a goddess in the kitchen; and being gladdened by green gadgets, green food and green politics because green is the colour of hope. See About Me for more info.